I have ship and base construction automation turned on. I want the AI to build bases automatically but not ships. I set all the percentages for the ships to 0% to stop ship construction. Unfortunately there is no percentage for Resupply ships.

The consequence is lots of Resupply ships gets built until my ship power reaches the equivalent of the Low, Medium or High that I select from the drop-down menu in the Policy section for construction.

Is there any way to stop Re-supply ships getting built? If not, I'm going to have to go back on manual for base construction too as the AI is spamming re-supply ships.

You could just take the checkbox off for it to design them in the empire settings, works for me They are a pain to use and late game are useless to supply a large fleet and mine were like magnets to Kaltors

Do you think the "role" setting in the ship building designs between a resupply ship and a mining base are the same when it comes to refueling fleets far away?? (meaning wouldnt I just build a mine instead of a resupply ship because fleets can refuel and mines and freighters can take resources.. where I assume freighters can **NOT** take resources from Resupply ships??

I Do however realize that mines can *not* be built in enemy territory so when you are attacking far away and then probably is the time you need and can only use a resupply ship for fueling so your fleet doesnt have to go home.. correct?

Again do you think this applies to starbases and star ports?? what be a main difference between the "roles" in the ship building designs between the "starbase" and "StarPort" using that concept I talked about above with freighters etc..?

A resupply ship can move, and stay in enemy territory. A mine can not.

A resupply ship can stay at a source in peace, and fill it holds with what you need. Then move and deliver a full load of fuel as soon as it arrives where it is needed. Don't fill it at ta caslon/hydrogen source if your state ships run on caslon. A mine starts empty when built.

A frigate can kill a mine. A frigate is hardly an annoyance to a resupply ship. Resupply ships are powerful warships.

If you run with AI designed ships, resupply ships are likely to be your only ship with a long range scanner...

Resupply ships are not trading points. You will never find that the fuel on your resupply ship has been picked up by a freighter, or are reserved by your own or other empires. Unless you have a state ship incoming with a refuel order...

Have you ever seen a mine flee from combat? If you have some kind of control with long range scanners, you will know about fleets trying to kill your resupply ship. Hopefully early enough for the ship to have 30 seconds to undeploy, and some 20 more seconds to turn and get into hyperspace.

A resupply ships will refuel a large fleet faster than a mine. It has more docking bays.

The default resupply ship has more gas extractors and should get fuel faster than mines. I am not quite sure, though, since the game seems to have started putting two gas extractors on the mines...

I never looked at them from the production point of view, ill design some and see how it pans out. Its just whenever ive used them, even after ive sent a fleet to 'clean house' a sector, I always seemed to attract the biggest Kaltors, I thought they were attracted to the fuel

As far as I know, wildlife are there from the start and don't spawn. Silvermist may be a bit different, though.

There are some gas clouds with Kaltor swarms. Those are dangerous. But a single Kaltor? For a resupply ship not at basic design? Designed by the AI? The Kaltor would not be able to hurt the thing among the fighters and the blasters/torpedoes it pack.

I am quite sure it by default has more weapons than the AI cruiser design, at least.

Resupply ships are the fuel tankers for your fleet. On a large 15x15 map it can take a year or more game time to move a fleet across the map to strike into the heart of your enemy’s empire. By moving a supply fleet to an unoccupied system near your target and setting up a fuel stop beforehand, your battle fleet can warp in and fuel up before the short hop to the target system. This means your ships go into battle with a full or near full load of fuel.

Building mines require a construction ship that travels slowly and those type ships don’t work on an efficient schedule for your much faster paced military ops.

Mines are fixed and your war may take your battle fleet many sectors away from the initial jump-off system thus requiring longer and longer refuel hops back to the mine. A resupply ship can follow the fleet setting up shop in unoccupied systems along the way to keep your fleet topped off with just minor short hops required so the offensive momentum remains yours.

And the most important thing as far as I’m concerned. By using resupply ships for all military ops outside of your friendly territory, your battle fleets do not require very large fuel storage tanks, thus freeing up space for more shields, armor and weapons.

While it may be convenient from a micro-manage perspective to have large fuel capacities for your ships, it makes a significant impact on individual ship fighting power if you use that space for combat abilities instead.